Bonfire Goes Zynga, or: You Can’t Keep a Local Gaming Company Down on the Farmville

Hard to believe it’s been almost two years since we posted that item about the two local companies to rise from the ashes of Ensemble Studios — Robot Entertainment and Bonfire Studios, each consisting of ex-Microsofties scattered to the virtual winds after Ensemble’s September ’08 demise. Robot’s still mining familiar territory, making Age of Empire Online for Microsoft and offering Halo Wars upgrades, while Bonfire went the social-gaming route, making as-yet-unreleased games for the Facebook.

Which only makes today’s announcement all the more appropriate: Zynga, makers of FarmVille and Mafia Wars, has snapped up Bonfire. For how much? Doesn’t say, but the three founders — David Rippy, Bill Jackson and Scott Winsett — will stay at the top. Bonfire’s website’s already gone, and not many more deets are known — for the most part, as it says here, because “Bonfire’s name hasn’t been attached to any new games since it was founded.” That’ll more than likely change sooner than later.